Garter or other garment-holding device



(No Model.)

E. PIOKHARDT. I GARTER OR OTHER GARMENT HOLDING DEVICE.

' No. 554,304; Patented Feb. 11, 1896.

NlTED STATES ATENT rricn.

EMILE PIOKHARDT, OF ISLI NGTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

GARTER OR OTHER GARMENT-HOLDING DEVICE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 554,304, dated February 11, 1896. Application filed February 26, 1895. Serial No. 539,718. (No model.)

T at whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, EMILE PICKHARDT, of Islington, in the county of Norfolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Garters or other Gar1nent-llolding Devicesan'd OastOff Buckles, of which the following is afull, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification.

This invention relates to improvements in garment-holdin g devices which comprise separable parts adapted to be secured together by a cast-off buckle; and the invention consists of a garter or other garment-holding device provided with a catch or clasp attached thereto and combined with a cast-off buckle in the manner herein described and claimed and of a cast-off buckle having the structure herein described and claimed.

On the accompanying sheet of drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective view of a garter embodying the invention; Fig. 2, a face view of the buckle, showing its' members arranged to allow the part of the garter-band on which the buckle is permanently secured to be inserted therein; Fig. 3, a longitudinal section of the buckle in the plane 00 in, Fig. 2; Fig. 4, a longitudinal section of the buckle and parts of a garter band, for example, connected thereby; and Fig. 5, aview of the buckle from the back, the parts thereof occupying the positions in which they appear in Figs. 2 and 3.

Similar reference-numbers designate like parts in the several views.

The general object of this invention is the production of an ornamental fastening for securing together the separable parts of various garment-holding devices, particularly garters and other forms of stocking-supporters, but also belts, suspenders, and. all articles of dress on which cast-off buckles may be conveniently used.

Three new and useful results are effected by the invention. First, the buckle is pre vented from slipping on the band to which it is attached when the free end of the lever is moved outward ninety degrees or less from the band; second, the free end of the band, after being passed through the buckle, is caused to lie behind the portion of the buckle to which one member of the clasp is affixed,

and, third, the fastening is rendered particularly ornamental by providing the buckle with a lever having perforations therein and covering all portions of the clasp and buckle, which might otherwise be seen through the openings in the lever, with the fabric of the garter or other device, so that only the surface of the fabric is visible through the perforations in the lever. Hence, it will be seen, all of these results depend upon the structure of the buckle; but one of themnamely, the third-also depends upon the connection with the buckle of one of the parts of the garter or other device to which the invention is applied.

The buckle is composed of a frame 1 and lever 2, each of which is made from a fiat blank of metal. In Figs. 2, 3, and 5are shown face, edge, and back views, respectively, of the frame 1. It contains two slots and 11, the slot 10 being much wider than the other, or instead of a slot 10 it may contain an oblong groove having the outline presented by the slot; but a slot is considered preferable to a groove, since a groove adds to the necessary thickness of the buckle, the thickness of the metal forming the bottom of the groove. At each side of the frame and directly in range with the slot 10 or groove is an ear 12, or a projection of the blank bent up as shown. On the projection 13, which forms the front portion of the frame, is one of the members 'of a clasp 3, which may be of the kind, for

example, commonly known as glove-fasteners.

The lever 2 of the buckle is composed of the broad arm having, if desired, perforations 21 with ornamental figures stamped in the metal surrounding them, and of a cam23, and means for pivoting the lever to the frame 1. The arm 20 may also be properly termed a shield, since it has approximately the outline of a shield and performs to some extent the function of a shield as well as of a leverarm. The cam 23 has the form of a section of a cylinder and preferably extends forward beyond the main part of the shield 20 at the rear edge of the cam, as shown at 24. The lever is pivoted at points 25 in the axis of the cylinder, of which the cam is a section, to the cars 12 of the frame 1, the parts being so arranged that the surface of the cam is close to but not in contact with the edges of the slot 10, except when the shield is thrown backward at more than a right angle to the face of the frame. hen the lever is thrown backward as far as it can turn in the frame, as shown in Figs. 2, 3, and 5, then the cam is out of the slot 10, and the band to which the buckle is to be applied may be readily inserted in the buckle and drawn through it.

The band (represented in the drawings as part of a garter 4) is passed between the frame 1 and lever 2 and through the slot 11 in the frame, as indicated in Figs. 1 and 4, and is drawn through the buckle until the latter is at the place on the portion 40 of the band where it is desired to fasten it. The lever is then turned so that it forces a short section 41 (see Fig. 4) of the band out of its natural position into the slot 10 and pinches it between the cam 23 and the edges of the slot, the position of the lever then being either one of those in which it appears in Fig. 4 or any intermediate position. If the band is composed of material that would be damaged by the edges of the slot, as shown, they may be rounded or turned outward slightly from the surface of the cam without rendering the buckle liable to slip on the band.

On that portion 42 of the garter or other device which is adapted to overlap and connect with the portion 40 is the member of the clasp 3' that engages with the member above mentioned on the buckle. It is attached to the device on the back or inside and covered by the fabric, so only the surface of the fabric is seen in front, and the end of the part 42 rests close to the cam 23 when the members of the clasp are in engagement with each other.

A garter comprising a buckle and clasp constructed and arranged as described, when the buckle is properly adjusted on the band and the lever of the buckle is raised, as shown in Fig. 4, may be fastened on and unfastened from the leg merely by engaging and disengaging the members of the clasp The band is stretched around the leg by holding the buckle with one hand and theend of the portion 42 with the other and drawing them together, and this does not cause the buckle to slip on the band since, as above stated, the band is tightly held by the buckle even when the lever is raised far enough to enable the clasp 3 to be operated. After the garter is fastened on the leg the lever is turned down against the portion 42, and if the band consists of material having a bright color, such as that from which garter-bands are commonly made, an ornamental effect is produced by the surface of the material showing through the perforations in the shield 20 of the lever.

The garter may be provided with bows 5 of ribbon attached directly to the portions 40 and 42 of the garter-band, as shown in Fig. 1. Each bow is thus held securely in its proper place, whereas if the end of the portion 40 instead of passing throughthe slot 11 and behind the portion 42 overlapped that portion in front, and if the bow shown attached to a that portion were placed on and near the free end of the portion 40, where one of the bows of a garter having a common lever-buckle is usually placed, the bow would not long remain where it belongs after the garter was put into use.

From the foregoing description it is doubtless clear that the invention may be embodied in other forms of stocking-supporters and various garment-holding devices and that the buckle may be used in place of a common lever-buckle without the other features of the invention.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. A garment-holding device comprising a lever-buckle, a band and a clasp, the buckle having a perforated shield 20 and a slot 11 in the front part of the frame, the band passing through the buckle between the frame and lever and through the slot 11, one member of the clasp being on the frame of the buckle in front of the slot 11, and the other member of the clasp being attached to the portion 42 of the band on the back and being covered by the band, substantially as described.

2. A buckle composed of a frame having a slot or recess 10 therein, and a lever pivoted to the frame and provided with a cam arranged to extend into the recess 10 when the arm of the lever extends outward from the frame substantially at right angles to it, whereby the buckle is adapted to tightly hold a band passing through the buckle when the lever of the buckle is in the position specified, substantially as described.

3. A buckle composed of a frame having a slot or recess 10 and a slot 11 therein and having a member of a clasp on the part in front of the slot 11, and of a lever pivoted to the frame and having a cam arranged to extend into the slot or recess 10, with the bearing-surface of the cam close to the front edge of the recess, when the arm of the lever extends outward from the frame far enough to allow the members of the clasp to be freely engaged with and disengaged from each other, substantially as described.

4. A buckle composed of a frame having the slot or recess 10 and slot 11 and having ears 12 and a member of a clasp in front of the slot 11, and of a lever pivoted to the cars 12 of the frame and having the cam 23 substantially in the form of a half-cylinder, and an arm or shield forming the face of the buckle, substantially as described.

EMILE PICKHARDT.

In presence of- S. G; MnrcAnr, F. B. PACKARD. 

